The Man Behind the Mosque

1.      Assume that the documentary, The Man Behind the Mosque, provided an accurate and research-based perspective on how the “Ground Zero Mosque” became a story. Based on what you saw there, what steps can you remember the cable-news media covering the story taking to investigate who was actually behind the Mosque in terms of mission, goals, and funding?

They interviewed the planner, people who support the project, they went to a rally where they interviewed people against the plan, they interviewed people who lost loved ones in 9/11, and saw a fundraising opportunity where they asked for money because they had none.

2.      Who brought the story of the “Ground Zero Mosque” to Fox News, the station that broke the story and led coverage of the story?

Pamela Zeller

3.      It can be argued that much of the cable news coverage of the story was just that – coverage of a “story,” and how people felt about this “story,” rather than actual reporting.  Explain how we can see this at work

This can be seen because they include many stories about people who are ready to build the mosque today and others who are completely opposed to the idea. There are few facts about the process the builders are going through in order to build this place and the logistics of the project and more about feelings.

4.      The journalists of Frontline included coverage of and interviews with the staff of Park 51 (the NYU grad and a couple other part-timers).  Do these individuals appear ever to have been interviewed on cable-news?

I would think so, they were very well spoken and did not appear to have any nerves.

5.      What sources did Cable news appear to rely on for knowledge and expertise about Islam?  How credible did you find these sources?  Why?

The main resources this documentary used were the coordinator of the project, his employees and the people who backed him, and there were stories at the beginning from families that lost their loved ones in 9/11.

6.      How relevant is the ownership of a media source for understanding its goals and how its goals may shape bias in its coverage? 

A Saudi Prince is owns FOX news. This Prince is Muslim, therefore it would be bias towards Muslims because he wants to shed positive light of his religion.

7.      Who was, at the time of the Ground Zero Mosque story, the second largest shareholder in the News Corp?

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal

8.      If you bring up the topic of the Ground Zero mosque today, many people might say something like, “Oh yeah . . . What ever happened to that?”  Think about it:  Given the level of urgency that was attached to the story, why did cable news just stop covering the story of the Mosque at Ground Zero?

Cable news probably dropped the story because of a combination of two ideas. Bigger and better news came along and that captured the people’s attention. Also it hit a dead end and the project was no longer going anywhere. They no longer had a story to cover.